Please note that special consideration has been taken with respect to recorded songs of Aboriginal people of Oceana. The issues are summed up in the sticker on the cover of Songs From The Northern Territory (Australian Institute Of Aboriginal Studies LP, 1964):

Caution: Discretion should be exercised in playing these recorded songs in the presence of Aboriginal people. The recoded voices of singers now deceased may cause distress to listening relatives. In the case of exclusive men’s and women’s song, it is advisable to insure that these are not played to mixed Aboriginal audiences or in the presence of Aboriginal children. Moreover, it will be appreciated that certain ritual songs may mean more to some Aboriginal groups than others. As a general principle, in any one Aboriginal community, recorded songs should be played first to a group of older Aboriginal people. Permission might then be sought from these people before further playback to others.

Ethnographic Flute Recordings from Oceana

These entries are sorted by the date (sometimes approximate) of the recording.

The term “collector” is used to indicate the researcher who oversaw the effort to record the material. In many cases, this person also serves as the recording engineer, although this role is typically not specified.

In the case of the publication of multiple editions of the audio material on different media (for example, LP, cassette, and compact disc), only the most recent edition is cited. However, the text of liner notes from earlier editiions is sometimes provided. Click on the citation tag to see the listing of all published editions.

1Wegner's notes:
Panpipe music from the Solomon Islands. Two Tambatamba musicians playing.
Cylinder recording: Richard Thurnwald
Collection "Thurnwald Südsee", cylinder 264
Bambatani, Island of Choiseul, Central Solomon Islands, 1907.
The residents of the Solomon Islands used mainly bamboo to build their instruments. For example, bamboo pipes were combined in various lengths and with different diameters. These “panpipes” were very popular among the islanders.
The principle of the panpipe is simple. Instead of providing each pipe with finger holes to allow the playing of different notes, single-tone pipes in different lengths were bound together.
The longer the pipe was, the lower the tone would be. The pipes could be arranged either in a bundle or resembling a raft with one or two rows. The panpipe ensembles play surprisingly complex polyphonic music that is very unfamiliar to Western ears.
Richard Thurnwald reported: “Entirely new panpipes are built for the Unu celebrations for the sons of the major chiefs. First, though, tuning parties and rehearsals with the panpipes take place.” The occasion for a festival of that kind is a serious one: “Coconut palms are planted at a boy’s birth. As soon as these begin to carry fruit, the Unu festival is celebrated. This is when the boy is accepted in the group of the grownups. From then on he can enjoy the fruit of this coconut palm for the rest of his life, since these plants get about as old as a man. [...] The meaning of this festival is the agreement that is made with a chief, who obliges himself to seek revenge if anything bad is inflicted on the boy. [...]” (Thurnwald, “Forschungen auf den Salomo-Inseln” [‘Research on the Solomon Islands’], 1912).

[Papuan 1949-01]
Unknown Papuan performers; Colin Simpson (collector).
No title.
Papuan culture. Recorded 1949, Papua New Guinea.
» Recording archived at The National Film and Sound Archive - Australia1, Australia. Title No 401303; part of Title No 401259.

¹Liner notes:
Title No: 401303
Title: NATIVE INSTRUMENTS. PUMINGI (BAMBOO FLUTE)
Production Date: 1949
Produced as: Field recording; Music
Categories: Ethnographic; Folk music
Media: Sound Recording, Unpublished
Summary: From the Central Highlands of new Guinea. General note: see synopsis for performance contexts and meanings of songs.
Country of Origin: Papua New Guinea
Credits: Production company: Australian Broadcasting Commission
Recording engineer/Sound recordist: Colin Simpson
*** Contained in:
Title No: 401259
Title: NEW GUINEA AND PAPUAN NATIVE MUSIC
Production Date: 1949
Produced as: Field recording; Music
Categories: Ethnographic; Folk music
Media: Sound Recording, Unpublished
Summary: General note: see synopsis for performance contexts and meanings of songs. -- "The accompanying set of records, put forth by the Australian Broadcasting Commission, was originally secured with a portable wire recorder when the feature writer Colin Simpson, with radio tech. John Cunningham did a quick tour of Papua and New Guinea early in 1949. The music was not recorded methodically, but was picked up as it occurred en route." Source: synopsis.
Country of Origin: Papua New Guinea
Languages: English; Papua-New Guinean
Credits: Production company: Australian Broadcasting Commission
Recording engineer/Sound recordist: Colin Simpson

[Papuan 1949-02]
Unknown Papuan performers; Colin Simpson (collector).
No title.
Papuan culture. Recorded 1949, Papua New Guinea.
» Recording archived at The National Film and Sound Archive - Australia1, Australia. Title No 401304; part of Title No 401259.

¹Liner notes:
Title No: 401304
Title: NATIVE INSTRUMENTS. NAMA (PAIRED FLUTES)
Production Date: 1949
Produced as: Field recording; Music
Categories: Ethnographic; Folk music
Media: Sound Recording, Unpublished
Summary: From the Central Highlands of New Guinea. General note: see synopsis for performance contexts and meanings of songs.
Country of Origin: Papua New Guinea
Credits: Production company: Australian Broadcasting Commission
Recording engineer/Sound recordist: Colin Simpson
*** Contained in:
Title No: 401259
Title: NEW GUINEA AND PAPUAN NATIVE MUSIC
Production Date: 1949
Produced as: Field recording; Music
Categories: Ethnographic; Folk music
Media: Sound Recording, Unpublished
Summary: General note: see synopsis for performance contexts and meanings of songs. -- "The accompanying set of records, put forth by the Australian Broadcasting Commission, was originally secured with a portable wire recorder when the feature writer Colin Simpson, with radio tech. John Cunningham did a quick tour of Papua and New Guinea early in 1949. The music was not recorded methodically, but was picked up as it occurred en route." Source: synopsis.
Country of Origin: Papua New Guinea
Languages: English; Papua-New Guinean
Credits: Production company: Australian Broadcasting Commission
Recording engineer/Sound recordist: Colin Simpson

Mass confusion on these tracks! Folkways only lists two of the three flute solo tracks: the first and second by Subam and Girao. Listening to the on-line samples, however, they seem to match the transcriptions Laade transcriptions (from the liner notes of the album) for the second and third tracks by Girao and Geawag

1Field notes of Wolfgang Laade:
Burāri (flute) solo, played by Subam (14 years old) from Buzi.

A favorite with the youths is also the longitudinal flute without mouthpiece. It is cut from cane and one fingerhole is applied roughly a hand's breadth above the lower end. This is done without any measuring and the result is quite accidental. But I found that the number of possible scales on the flutes is limited to four (about a dozen instruments were tested).

This flute which in Agab is called burāri and in Owera túru, sounds most brilliantly If it is made from the cane called pater which is thinner and lighter. And it sounds heavier and less flexible if made from the thicker upius. The latter can be heard in ex. 17. On the flutes, song tunes are always played, of course, with instrumental ornamentation. But in fact the variations develop so far from the original tune that the latter can hardly be recognized. The interrelation between the
vocal and the flute music has still to be studied with a greater number of recordings, particularly made for this purpose: i.e. with parallel recordings of corresponding vocal and flute tunes. From a first impression we can only state that the flute music has a wider ambitus than a song normally has; it shows a less regular formal structure and metre and sometimes (ex. 16) has rapid figures which do not exist in the local singing.

The favorite time for flute playing is the "fine weather time", i.e. the perfectly calm days of the rainy season when the sound of the instrument can be heard over a considerable distance. Also the strains of the flute are said to arouse amorous desire in the hearts of the girls. Therefore the burāri is only played by the unmarried lads.

1Field notes of Wolfgang Laade:
Burāri (flute) solo, played by Girao (21 years old) from Buzi. The harsh sound of the thick upi us flute Ccn clearly be recognized and easily be distinguished from the thin pater wood of the flute used in the next recording.

1Liner notes:
The Ravoi are played by the brothers Vagh and Gombreh, old men who said they were of the last generation who had undergone full male initiation and therefore knew how to play the flutes properly and all their cries or tunes. In this village we recorded seven different pairs of flutes. The Borai villages are several miles inland on a river. Recorded 14 April 1976.

1Liner notes:
The waudang are played by Soagill and Ururu. The singing is part of a cycle of songs sung when the waudang are blown. Monam Island is an active volcano eight miles off the New Guinea coast. The population live in thirteen villages and each village has a hereditary chief or tanepwa who arbitrates disputes and controls the staging of ceremonies and the playing of the single pair of flutes used in each village. The flutes are blown when something of importance happens to a member of the tanepwa lineage and on the same kinds of occasions on which flutes are played in the culturally similar mainland villages (at times of male Initiation, during ceremonies, and ceremonial exchanges between villages). Recorded 19 May 1976.

1Liner notes:
The Jarvan are played by Jogun and Sabina, We were told that the Jarvan were "mambu bilong san' (flutes of a kind which could only be played during daylight hours). The Do-don shell ratte was the only one we saw in the area, and we were told it was used only for accompanying Jarvan. It consisted of a number of shells, each hanging from separate strings which were attached to a central rope suspended from the rafters of the men's house. The do-don was played by pulling a string attached to the central string backwards and forwards. A tropical rainstorm can be heard in the background in the last two minutes of this recording. Awar is on the sea coast. Recorded 11 April 1976.

1Liner notes:
Mo-mos are end-blown lengths of bamboo (resonating tubes) with the inter-nodes knocked out approximately six to eight feet in length and open at each end. When played, the player rests one end on the ground and yodels down the other end. They are made and owned by Individuals, not by patrilineages. Mamas are sometimes played with garamuts which are still used in this area, but there were none in the village where this was recorded.
Male iniates were previously taught abaut the spirit-cries of the Mo-mos during male initiation, which has now been largely abandoned, Momos are now played on village occasions such as ceremonial exchanges, pig fertility festivals, funerals, marriages, births, and other celebrations often accompanied by singing. The songs sung vary with the occasions but the Mo-mos are capable of only one kind of cry. Rights to songs are sometimes purchased from the villages that own them.
The inhabitants of Damaindeh-Bau, in the Finisterre Range on the edge of the Ramu Valley, are culturally similar to the other groups that live in the Finisterre Range as far away as near the Saidor coast of Madang, and they speak mutually intelligible languages. They say that in the past they and their neighbors migrated from the coast up into the Finlsterre Range, The recording was made at night and the sounds of the night-time insects are clearly audible. Recorded 20 August 1976.